Okay, next one is up. This one is a mostly a transition chapter, but i still hope it turned out as good as the others, but its not my job to judge that, its yours. so read and enjoy, and review if you feel like it, every one helps.

Chapter 5

Lightning was awake, and she didn't like it. She was too comfortable. She didn't know why or how, all she knew is she was content and she didn't want it to end. As long as she was asleep it would continue, if she woke up it would be over, and she really didn't want whatever this was to be over. She just wanted to be like this forever.

*ahem* What was that? Lightning heard something, barely, but it was there. Now she had to wake up. Her ears were coming online just ahead of the rest of her, but she was still doing so very slowly.

"Ahem" she heard again. That's a person…clearing their throat, nearby. Lightning opened her eyes and, after a few seconds, realized what she was seeing; a pair of legs in front of her. She turned her head to see Vanille standing over her with her hands on her hips.

"Comfy?" the redhead asked.

"Mmhm." Was all Lightning could gather in response.

"Well at least you two have clothes on this time." Vanille said, then softly kicked the bedframe that lay on the floor, "So this is what we heard crashing a little while ago."

"Little while? How long have we been asleep?" Lightning asked, rubbing her eyes as her memories started to come back.

"How should I know?" the pulsian asked, "But based on when this thing crashed I'd say about a half hour, hour tops."

"What's with the noise, Sunshine?" Fang asked from behind Lightning, tightening her arm around her as she did.

"It's Vanille." Lightning said, not bothering to turn around. Fang lifted her head from the mattress and looked at her friend.

"Well hey there." Fang said to the younger woman, a grin spreading across her face, "Looks like ya caught us again."

"Hi Fang." Vanille said cheerfully, "And yes I did. But unless you want the boys to catch you, you might want to move."

"She's right." Lightning said as she sat up, Fang's arm still around her waist.

"Ohhh, don't go Sunshine." Fang whined at the soldier, and then did her best impression of Vanille's pout that had convinced so many people to do what she wanted.

"Sorry Fang, but we can't let them find out. Not just yet at least." Lightning said, then stood and stepped away from the huntress, an act that took every ounce of willpower that she had. She chose the smaller of the two beds left to lay in, but it would be a while before she fell asleep again. Even ignoring the chatting of the other two women, she was having trouble adjusting to the considerable lack of Fang in this bed.

"You did it wrong." Vanille said to Fang, drawing her attention away from the soldier lying on the bed, "You forgot to tilt your head." She added, slouching her shoulders, tilting her head and pouting.

"I'll remember that next time." Fang said, "Well damn, how am I supposed to sleep on this thing now?" At this she looked the broken bed up and down.

"Well, I may not be Lightning, but I think that other bed could hold two people." Vanille said, looking past Fang at the last of the beds, "So you can sleep here on this broken thing, or share with me, if you think Lightning won't get jealous."

"Well, you're right, you ain't no Sunshine. But I would still be glad to share the bed with you." Fang said as her and Vanille laid down on the other bed. Vanille fell asleep quickly, but Fang, despite having Vanille to hold on to, still missed her Sunshine. Despite this, they all fell asleep soon enough, ready to have a day off.

….

Lightning was conscious, and she hated it. She would rather be dead than awake right now, her entire body was sore, her mouth was like cotton, and her head felt like it had already exploded and was trying to do so again. Her entire being hurt. She just wanted to curl up and go back to sleep.

"Rise and shine." Vanille said as she opened a latch that let swung open a hole in the wall. The crude rendition of a window sent rays of sunlight washing over Lightning. She moaned as the light and noise, even threw her closed eyes, spiked the pain in her skull. She also heard a similar noise from Fang at the same time.

"Vanille, what the hell is wrong with you?" Lightning asked, grabbing the front of her skull as she spoke. She felt like she had fallen off of Cocoon and landed face first on rocks.

"I don't get hangovers, never have. I don't know why." Vanille said in her usual bubbly voice. Lightning finally managed to open her eyes to see Vanille sitting beside Fang on the bed. "So whatcha wanna do Fang? We got a day off."

"I want you to kill me." Fang said, her face in her hands. "Just take my spear and run it through my head; if you haven't already."

"I told you that stuff was a bad idea when you got it out, now you're no fun." Vanille said, "You still need to get up though."

"Why would we want to do that?" Lightning asked, focusing her breathing to try and make the pain stop.

"Well, Snow's already up and he drank more than both of you." Vanille said, trying to play on their pride.

"Oh I gotta see this." Fang said as she rolled herself out of the bed and onto her hands and knees.

"Not what I meant, but okay." Vanille said as she jumped up and waited at the door for Fang. "You comin' Lightning?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there." Light said as she sat up. She reached the door the same time as Fang and the three of them walked over to the nearby building where the guys were waiting.

Vanille led the trio of woman into the building. Sazh and Snow were both sitting in chairs while Hope was tinkering with Bhakti again. Sazh looked usual, just a little worn out. Snow looked like he had been trampled by adamantoise. Vanille walked over to watch Hope work while Fang and Lightning took the two nearest seats.

"Damn Snow, you look like hammered shit." Fang said to the large man who cringed when she spoke.

"Shut up Fang, this is all your fault anyway." Snow replied, putting his head in his hands and bending over in his chair.

"I told ya to go slow, but you didn't listen." Fang said, smiling despite the pain in her head.

"I'm gonna go throw up." Snow said and walked out the door. The rest of the group heard sounds confirming what he had just said. When he returned he looked even worse than when he left.

"How about some food? I'm starving." Vanille said getting up. A unanimous yet barely coherent agreement was heard from the hung-over section of the building. They walked to yet another building with a kitchen and a large pot for stews and soups, apparently for the whole village based on the size. Vanille prepared some food while everyone else waited. After they ate the entire group felt much better, though Fang and Snow were both still down. Lightning however felt almost back to her normal self.

Most of the day was spent recovering, be it from the hang overs, the stress, the near constant travel, or the seemingly endless series of battles they had been through. No one had been willing to give up, but they had all been worn almost completely out. The endless days of fighting and running, the short nights, shortened even more by guard duty. The only one who got any real work done was Hope, who had finished fixing Bhakti, earning him an excited hug from Vanille that turned him red. Other than that not much got done, though everyone felt much better for it.

Lightning looked around the empty village as the sun began to set. The place truly was a ghost town, with everyone inside there wasn't a thing moving. Well, almost everyone was inside. Lightning walked over and sat down on the sand beside Fang, stretching her legs out in front of her. They sat in silence for a few minutes and watched the sunset. Fang was the first to speak.

"Wish you could have seen it before. It used to be wonderful." She said, still looking at the horizon.

"The sunset?" Lightning asked, not understanding how it could be any different.

"No, the village." Fang said, not bothering to look at it when she spoke, "It used to be busy. It was small, sure, but it always had people. Hunters would bring in their kills, foresters would bring in the best herbs and spices, the cooks would make enough food to literally feed a village; always the best food too, no one was better. And everyone was your friend, hell everyone was family. You never had to worry about people taking your stuff cuz most of it belonged to everyone anyway, and when somethin' was yours people respected that and left it alone. People slept wherever they wanted and didn't worry about what might happen, cuz everyone else had your back."

Lightning watched and listened as the woman reminisced about her village. It truly saddened her that it was her own world that had done this, that she was somehow responsible, even if she hadn't been born yet. Maybe that was why Fang and Vanille were helping them now, not just because of a brand, but because they knew what it was like to fight to save your home

"I'm sorry." Lightning said, surprising Fang who knew it was not something she said often, "It's not right, what happened to you and Vanille. I know we can't bring it back to what it was before, but maybe, when all this is over, we can rebuild it, make it a new place. I'm sure not everyone will want to stay on Cocoon, especially after the purge."

" 'We' can rebuild it?" Fang inquired.

"You know what I mean." Lightning said.

"Yeah, I know. And it sounds good to me." Fang said.

"Well," Lightning said, standing up, "we should get inside with the others, we're not going to be taking tomorrow off too."

"Whatever ya say, Sunshine." Fang said as she too stood up.

They walked back to the buildings and met up with the others inside. It wasn't long before everyone elected to go to sleep, knowing they were going to be busy training the next day. They also wanted to make sure they could get as much sleep in a bed as possible, since they didn't know how long they would be sleeping on the ground again.

….

Fang threw another volley of ruin at the cie'th they were fighting; the damn thing was starting to piss her off. The cie'th in question was flying just out of their range for the whole fight, it was the reason she hated fighting things that could fly. She wasn't very good with magic either, so her long range attacks weren't near as effective as she wanted them to be. The thing was almost done though, mostly due to Lightning and Hope's ravager roles, the other three had chosen to sit this one out unless they were needed. If she could just get close enough this thing would done for, but it flew out of the way every time she tried to jump at it. Sunshine had been the only one who could land a blow on it.

Lightning seen Hope's magic hit the cie'th with precision and power. Lightning wasn't waiting any longer to take this thing down. She glanced over at Fang and met her eyes. She backed up quickly, and then ran at the huntress from behind her. Fang dropped to her knees and held her spear out in front and above her head. Lightning put one foot on Fang's shoulder, then the other on the spear, and jumped into the air holding her gunblade in reverse position. She collided mid-air with the cie'th, her sword going through its torso. She landed on the ground with her sword still through the creature, she pulled it out and dismounted with a backflip that went higher than should be possible. As she did this Fang ducked under her, spun her spear around and brought it down on the cie'ths neck.

Fang stepped back from the dead cie'th, expecting it to disappear like all the others, it didn't. Instead it flew into the air, flew away from them, and circled one spot at high speed. When it finished, the cie'th was gone and there was a large crystal sphere in its place. The party looked at Fang and Vanille for answers, but they simply shrugged; how the hell where they supposed to know what just happened? Either way, they had slain another target for the cie'th stones; another mission was done. Not that there weren't many others to be completed, but this one was over. Maybe their next one wouldn't be so annoying.

"I'm glad that one's over." Fang said as they began their walk away.

"What for?" Vanille asked even though she already knew the answer.

"I hate those damn fliers; I can't ever get close enough to `em." Fang said.

"That's why I carry these." Sazh said, patting his pistols.

"Really? I thought it was cuz ya were too old to use a real weapon." Fang said, grinning at the older man.

"Real weapon? These things are as real as I need them to be." Sazh returned, ignoring the crack at his age.

"You two arguin' about weapons?" Snow asked, getting in on the conversation, "I got all the weapons I need right here." At this he flexed his biceps, showing off as they walked.

"And a lot a good they did us against that damn flyin' asshole back there." Fang said

"You looked like you took care of it pretty well on your own." Snow said

"Yeah, he wasn't exactly numero uno on the tough guy list, in fact he was worse than your cookin'; I just hate it when they won't let me hit them." Fang said

"I guess I can agree with that…Hey, wait a second, I can cook." Snow said, having a delayed reaction to the insult.

"I ain't seen ya do it before." Fang replied quickly.

They continued to poke jabs at each other until return to camp, at which point everyone started to calm down. They fell into their usual routine of winding down. One by one they all went to sleep; the only exception being Lightning, who was taking first watch, as usual. The night was quiet, like most others.

….

Lightning kept a sharp eye out as they approached the supposed location of their next target. It was supposed to be around here somewhere, but she couldn't see it. Everyone else appeared to be on edge too. Why wasn't it anywhere nearby?

"What's this one called again?" Fang asked for the third time; she never could remember the names of their targets, but she sure could kill them.

"Zenobia." Lightning answered.

"Okay, so where is it?" Fang asked.

"It should be right here." Lightning answered, stopping for a moment.

All of a sudden tentacles burst out of the ground in front of them. A cie'th climbed its way out from under the ground, standing over them with the tentacles where its arms should be. The team was immediately on alert, weapons ready and positions taken.

"Well this one looks like fun." Fang said, grinning at the imposing cie'th before them.

As if out of nowhere a small green tonberry appeared and walked up to Zenobia from behind. The six watched as the small green creature walked up to the beast and easily stabbed it in the ankle with its small knife. The cie'th collapsed on the ground and died as one of the undying. Then the tonberry turned and looked at the group. Who wore blank expressions, not sure what they had just witnessed.

"Well that was odd." Hope said

"Yeah, I wouln't have thought-OH SHIT!" Fang said as suddenly the tonberry attacked them.

Lightning jumped over the tonberry and began attacking it from behind with her gunblade, but its skin was thick and resilient. Seeing this Fang took up the sabatour role and began working to drop its defenses. Hope threw spell after spell at the small green creature, but like they only did so much. Eventually Fang managed to lower its defenses to magic and physical attacks, but not before it did some damage to all of them. Fang began helping Lightning with the attack while Hope continued with his magical bombardment. Lightning was glad the other three where smart enough to stay back, it was awkward enough trying to fight such a small creature with just the three of them. Despite this they soon managed to get its health down at a pretty substantial rate. They backed off for a moment to regroup their efforts. Lightning noticed it began charging an attack, this was bad she knew.

"Fang now!" Lightning said, knowing what would happen if it managed to attack.

"On it, Sunshine." Fang said and charged the tonberry by Lightning's side. They redoubled their efforts, Lightning's blade flashing at surprising speeds and Fang's spear landing with a force. Fang landed the final blow just in time; her spear coming up vertically and knocking the small but sturdy creature dead on its back.

"That was tough." Hope said simply.

"Damn little green bastard, never did like those things." Fang said while turning back to the group.

"At least they don't fly, right?" Snow asked at the huntress.

"Oh damn, I don't think I'd ever stop hitting it. Damn tonberries tryin' to go all grudge on me. And those stupid flyin' sons o' bitches not lettin' me hit em." Fang grumbled.

"I think I upset Fang." Snow said.

"Ya think?" Sazh said to Snow while Fang continued to complain about the annoying creatures she didn't enjoy fighting.

Lightning smirked at the huntress' annoyance for all the small creatures, because they all happened to be just that, but the only one who happened to see this was Vanille.

"Hey, Fang. Vanille." Lightning said, getting everyone's attention in the process, not just the two women.

"Yeah Sunshine." Fang responded.

"What is that thing anyway?" Lightning said, nodding her head in the direction of the moving mountain, "You said it was called Titan?"

"Yep, that's Titan. Why you bringing it up?" Fang asked.

"You mentioned Titan's Trials, correct?" Lightning asked, making it obvious where she was going with this.

"Are you thinkin' what I think you're thinkin', Sunshine?" Fang asked.

"Yes. Tomorrow we start Titan's Trials." Lightning said.

a/n: As you can see the transition is to Titan's Trials. Hoping to put some more fighting into the story. Considered making this one longer, but decided to make the Trials separate. Please review and i'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible.